A large coffee

As I walked out of Dunkin Donuts on Avenida de La Constitución, I scrunched my eyebrows as I looked at my “large” coffee to go. My large coffee here was about the size of a small coffee at home. What was interesting was that the woman working at Dunkin Donuts had scrunched her eyebrows at me in the same way when I stated that my coffee was going to be in a to-go cup.

Since being in Sevilla, I have noticed that drinking coffee is a social outing. People get coffee together to chat, to catch up, and to have company. Coffee is most often served black, with little milk or sugar, as to added extreme flavors would be a threat to the integrity of the traditional drink.

In the United States, the culture forces us to be on the go all of the time. Coffee must have a lot of flavors to mask the caffeine used solely for productivity. Dunkin Donuts does not even offer ceramic cups in order to drink in the place. All of the cups are to go cups. The emphasis on the individualistic culture of productivity in the United States makes it normal to drink coffee alone and on the go, while the collectivistic norms in Spain create a more social environment surrounding coffee consumption.

Since being in Spain, I have come to love having café solo with a friend and have definitely developed since the first day I had that eyebrow scrunching cup of to-go coffee from Dunkin on Avenida de La Constitución.